technology

Researchers from Google and sibling company Verily Life Sciences have developed a new algorithm using artificial intelligence to predict the risk of heart attack, stroke and other major cardiovascular events.

Scientists studied data from 284,335 patients and found the “deep-learning” AI algorithm could identify risk factors based on age, blood pressure, gender, smoking status and others just by scanning the individuals’ retinas.

“The rear interior wall of the eye (the fundus) is chock-full of blood vessels that reflect the body’s overall health,” the Verge reported. “By studying their appearance with camera and microscope, doctors can infer things like an individual’s blood pressure, age, and whether or not they smoke, which are all important predictors of cardiovascular health.”

"While doctors can typically distinguish between the retinal images of patients with severe high blood pressure and normal patients, our algorithm could go further to predict the systolic blood pressure within 11 mmHg on average for patients overall, including those with and without high blood pressure," lead author Lily Peng wrote in a Google blog.

This technology would make it more efficient for doctors to analyze cardiac risk without a blood test, which typically predicts events with 72 percent accuracy. But more tests are necessary before the AI can be used in a clinical setting.

“We look forward to developing and testing our algorithm on larger and more comprehensive datasets. To make this useful for patients, we will be seeking to understand the effects of interventions such as lifestyle changes or medications on our risk predictions and we will be generating new hypotheses and theories to test,” Peng wrote.

Former Lyft employees say the company spied on riders, and now the ride-sharing service is investigating the claim.

According to a report from The Information, a current or former employee made an anonymous post online claiming to have seen employees look up rider data on friends, exes, porn stars, actors and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Tech Crunch reported that it spoke with a source who once worked with Lyft. The unnamed source said staff can see feedback, rider history and pickup and dropoff coordinates.

“Maintaining the trust of passengers and drivers is fundamental to Lyft,” the company said in a statement. “The specific allegations in this post would be a violation of Lyft’s policies and a cause for termination, and have not been raised with our Legal or Executive teams. We are conducting an investigation into the matter.

“Access to data is restricted to certain teams that need it to do their jobs. For those teams, each query is logged and attributed to a specific individual. We require employees to be trained in our data privacy practices and responsible use policy, which categorically prohibit accessing and using customer data for reasons other than those required by their specific role at the company. Employees are required to sign confidentiality and responsible use agreements that bar them from accessing, using, or disclosing customer data outside the confines of their job responsibilities.”

“Despite extreme price volatility, cryptocurrencies have a bright future and the potential to deliver unusually large profits to investors,” Weiss said. “However, the market is hectic and confusing for investors. They need the clarity that only robust, impartial ratings can provide.”

The company said it got nearly 240 proposals from across the U.S. Canada and Mexico.

“All the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” Holly Sullivan, with Amazon Public Policy. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”

The price of bitcoin plunged by 15 percent Tuesday morning, dropping below $12,000 for the first time since Dec. 4. Other cryptocurrencies have also seen price declines, with Ethereum falling by 20 percent and Ripple falling by 33 percent. The plunging prices are a stark difference to the success bitcoin saw last month — hitting a record of nearly $20,000 on Dec. 16.

As the digital currency bitcoin surges in popularity, curious investors and entrepreneurs alike are watching closely to see what happens with the fluctuating prices. Don’t understand the basics of bitcoin? Here’s what you need to know:

What is bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, or a digital token, that can be sent electronically and directly from peer to peer. There is no physical backing and it is a decentralized currency — meaning it is not controlled by any government or banking entity. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency ever created, and remains the most popular one to date.

“I tell people it’s a digital currency and it’s a program,” said Jad Mubaslat, Wright State University graduate student and founder of BitQuick.co, a bitcoin trading platform. “For the first time in history, it allows anyone anywhere in the world to send any amount of money instantly. Most importantly, it’s without a third party … like a bank or a government. Now, you can truly send your money without somebody telling you what you can or cannot do.”

The record of all bitcoin exchanges and transactions are on what is called the blockchain, which is a network of decentralized computers.

How was bitcoin created?

Bitcoin was created by a programmer going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. He communicated only through email and social messaging, and no one truly knows Nakamoto’s identity. He released the software globally in 2009, and now anyone can use and download it.

How do you buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?

In the U.S., several websites have popped up where you can buy and sell bitcoin online. One of the most popular websites is Coinbase and others include Mubaslat’s BitQuick.co, Coindesk.com and bitcoin.com. Investors can also meet with other bitcoin users in person and trade bitcoin via their virtual wallets on their phones. After meeting another bitcoin user through websites like Craigslist or LocalBitcoin.com, a user simply scans a QR code with another person’s wallet to transfer bitcoin.

Some people prefer to buy bitcoin in person or through a bitcoin ATM because the bitcoin transfer over faster than when they buy it online — it can take up to seven days, and sometimes longer, for bitcoin to show up in a virtual wallet after purchasing it online.

Why do some criminals use cryptocurrency for illegal transactions?

Some criminals use bitcoin because users can open a wallet to send and receive bitcoin without giving a name or identity. There is no bank or central authority, like a government, to control this information. Bitcoin also became a popular method for making ransom payments when a computer system is taken over by ransomware.

However, bitcoin is not completely anonymous and transactions can be traced by police through bitcoin trading websites. Other untraceable cryptocurrencies, like Monero, are becoming popular for dark web uses including drug trafficking and human trafficking.

How is the worth of bitcoin decided?

The price — and ultimate worth — of bitcoin fluctuates, and experts are calling the cryptocurrency extremely volatile. The price is determined by open-market bidding on Bitcoin exchanges. The worth of bitcoin could be compared to the way that gold prices fluctuate — in the sense that gold has value because people believe it does.

What exactly is bitcoin mining?

Mining is the process that creates new bitcoins in the blockchain, or network of computers. The bitcoin miners race to process new transactions, and the fastest computers get a chunk of new bitcoin. A miner wins the race about every 10 minutes, which will happen until there are 21 million bitcoins in the world. No new bitcoins will be created after the blockchain has 21 million, which is expected to happen in 2140.

Anyone can set their computer up to mine bitcoin, but programmers with specialized hardware are usually the only ones to win bitcoin now.

Are there any other cryptocurrencies as popular as bitcoin?

Other cryptocurrencies also exist, but bitcoin is the most popular one right now. Other popular cryptocurrency includes Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Litecoin and Monero. Digital cryptocurrencies are being created for all types of uses like the legal marijuana industry and adult entertainment and sex worker industries.

Most transactions on the bitcoin network aren’t illegal — it’s typically people buying and selling bitcoin to each other. People in countries with high inflation or unstable governments are putting their money into bitcoin to avoid losing their savings. It’s also used to transfer large sums of money internationally. It is quicker to transfer bitcoin than it is to go through a bank transfer, which can take weeks.

Some businesses also accept bitcoin, including Overstock.com, Wikipedia, backpage.com and Square. For a short time, a franchise of Firehouse Subs in Cincinnati accepted bitcoin. The restaurant, in Clifton, shut down a few years ago. “Firehouse Subs didn’t do very many transactions in bitcoin, but it has generated buzz around the shop,” the Cincinnati Business Courier wrote.

The batteries, which usually cost $79, originally were able to be replaced with the $50 discount at the end of January, but the company started the program early. It is expected to run until the end of the year, USA Today reported.

Soon after news emerged that Apple admitted to slowing down iPhone performance as the devices’ batteries age, multiple lawsuits have been filed against the company.

CNBC reported that Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Apple, claiming the company never asked for consent from them to alter the performance of their phones.

The lawsuit says Apple breached the implied contracts with Bogdanovich and Speas “by purposefully slowing down older iPhone models when new models come out and by failing to properly disclose that at the time that the parties entered into an agreement,” according to WCBS.

The complaint also says that the two are entitled to compensation because the slowdown of their devices cause them to suffer “economic damages and other harm.”

“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components,” Apple said in a statement to The Verge about performance of the devices.

“Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future,” Apple said in the statement.

Bogdanovich and Speas are trying to get the case certified to cover all U.S. owners of iPhones older than the iPhone 8, according to CNBC. Their suit is not the only one against Apple since the company released its statement about iPhone battery speed. WCBS reported that a second class-action lawsuit was filed in Illinois on Thursday night.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the suit was filed in Chicago by two people in Illinois as well as by Ohio, North Carolina and Indiana residents with iPhone models 5 through 7.

The suit says Apple “needlessly subjects consumers to purchasing newer and more expensive iPhones when a replacement battery could have allowed consumers to continue to use their older iPhones.”

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 along party lines last week to repeal several rules surrounding net neutrality, a set of principles meant to stop broadband corporations from exercising control over what people see and do on the internet. Here are five things to know about what net neutrality is and what the repeal can mean for you.

Net neutrality as it’s known today dates back to 2005. In essence, it’s the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally in terms of user access and allowing a free and open experience for both users and content providers. Under the former protections, broadband companies such as Comcast Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. were not allowed to block, throttle or provide preferred treatment to particular sites and services for a fee.

In 2015, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, under President Barack Obama, moved to make broadband providers officially designated as telecommunications companies, which allowed the commission to regulate and put legally protected rules into place regarding the internet under Title II of the Communications Act.

2. What has changed following the vote?

The FCC’s vote has done two things: taken away broadband companies’ status as telecommunications companies and eliminated the anti-throttling rules. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, said the rules were heavy-handed and the repeal returns net neutrality back to a “soft-touch” approach, which he said will allow the industry more freedom for innovation in the market and increase investments in the industry in the long term.

3. How will this affect consumers?

Opponents have said the repeal will lead to an ability for internet service providers to create “fast lanes” for certain sites and services who pay for the privilege. It can also allow those companies to pressure content providers like Netflix to pay more to have their content served to users at the same speed as everything else, which could, in turn, force those providers to raise consumer prices to offset the cost.

Several companies, including Comcast, have said they will maintain their current stance on net neutrality and have vowed not to change their operations based on the decision but have left the door open to change their minds in the future. The FCC chairman said reducing regulations should lead to more innovations.

4. When will changes take effect?

Changes to the way ISPs provide access to consumers won’t come immediately but could happen gradually. However, several groups -- including the media reform advocacy group Free Press and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson -- have said they intend to sue the FCC to block the change. Lawsuits aren’t expected to appear in the court until after the change has been noted in the Federal Register in the coming weeks, but House Subcommittee on Communications and the Internet Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said she plans on introducing net neutrality legislation next week.

5. Who wins and who loses with this repeal?

The move is a win for broadband companies who have wanted the repeal to take effect ever since the formal 2015 rules were enacted. The companies have had fears the rules would allow the FCC to set prices for services or force them to share infrastructure with competitors. But the repeal passed last week erases that and allows companies the ability to change fees and practices as they wish.

Consumers may see price hikes for services they already use, like Hulu and Sling TV, over time due to the repeal. Opponents also argue the rule change can allow ISPs to influence or limit what opinions you can express or hear based on how they block or slow down certain sites and create monopolies.